Snapchat Is Going Mainstream And Attracting Older Users

A major contributor of Snapchat‘s appeal and meteoric rise among teens, was that their parents weren’t on it. Facebook was starting to look “old”. And guess what. The same is happening on Snapchat. Older audiences are flocking to the app.

Yup. Your parents are discovering Snapchat too.

A new report from ComScore shows that the number of over-35s on Snapchat are increasing. In fact, they have increased to 14% of U.S. smartphone users 35 and above – an increase of 12% in just over 3 years. The second strongest audience on the app – older millennials – currently the 25-34 age group have increased 5% in the same time. That’s 38% of U.S. smartphone users. 69% of 18-24-year-olds currently use Snapchat. That’s an increase of 24% in three years!

smartphone penetration nears 15-20 percent among the age-35-plus population, it appears that the social network is approaching the point at which critical mass is achieved within a particular audience segment that eventually propels it to much greater heights,

This happened to Facebook before and it is likely to happen to every single social network in the future. Made cool by “the kids” and then invaded by “their parents”. Despite this, some of the most influential Snapchatters out there are actually over 35. Take DJ Khaled for example. He’s 40 years old. A recent addition – Michelle Obama – is 52. Gwen Stefani is 46!

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Of course the increase in users is not a bad thing for Snapchat as it needs more users and especially ones with purchasing power. The company has made an effort to make its app more popular amongst older audiences by adding more features to appeal to them. “Stories” is just one of them.